With the arrival of Thanksgiving comes the holiday that shoppers look forward to every year: Black Friday.
Businesses and online retailers began rolling out notices of their deals as soon as the calendar hit Nov. 1. Headlines from stores such as Amazon, Target, and Best Buy are broadcasting their "Best Black Friday Deals" accompanied by large percentage markdowns to appeal to bargain shoppers whose wallets have been waiting all year to purchase TVs, clothes, and other big-ticket items.
However, Black Friday deals may not be the steal customers hope for, particularly as some can fall prey to marketing schemes and deceiving deals geared to get shoppers to spend more money. Black Friday shoppers may not experience all-time low prices due to the economy, as well.
Here are some top questions plaguing shoppers, whether they head to the mall or log on to a computer, as they prepare for Black Friday.
Will inflation affect Black Friday shopping?
Some experts believe that current economic conditions may indicate a slowdown in spending this Black Friday
Jeff Galak, associate professor of marketing at Carnegie Mellon University, said in an interview with NerdWallet that several signs are pointing to the possibility there might not be as many shoppers hitting the stores in waves on Friday. Galak pointed to record-high consumer credit card debt balances (which reached more than $1 trillion in the second quarter of 2023, per the Federal Reserve Bank), reduced personal savings rates, and record-high inflation raising the prices of goods.
Galak also said shoppers should anticipate smaller markdowns for prices this year as opposed to previous years.
“Their supply chains are also pushing prices higher, so it’s not like there’s an infinite amount that they can discount whatever the latest television is," Galak said of retailers. "There’s still a floor, and that floor is going up.”
Looming over Black Friday was the possibility of a government shutdown, as funding would have expired on Nov. 17. Several government agencies are relied upon during Black Friday.
“We rely on a lot of government services to make supply chains work: Customs and Border [Protection], a lot of the regulatory agencies, the FAA,” Rob Handfield, a professor of supply chain management at North Carolina State University, told NerdWallet. “If there’s a government shutdown and some of those agencies are impacted, it’s going to impact import/exports, it could impact our rail system, it could impact our transportation system.”
President Joe Biden signed Congress's continuing resolution overnight on Nov. 16, avoiding a government shutdown and extending funding for some agencies and programs until Jan. 19 and to Feb. 2 for the rest.
Are Black Friday deals worth it?
Experts acknowledge that while the appeal of a "70% off" sign is enticing, most of these deals are not legitimate. In 2022, Washington Consumers’ Checkbook spent 33 weeks tracking sale prices across 24 major retailers, discovering that most discount claims were attempts to mislead customers. Some of these stores included Home Depot, Kohl's, and Best Buy.
For eight of the 24 stores, shoppers found that half of the items tracked were sold at false discounts every week.
"At many retailers, the 'regular price' or 'list' price listed is seldom, if ever, what customers actually pay," the organization reported.
In a similar report done in 2018, six retailers (JCPenney, Kmart, Kohl’s, Macy’s, Neiman Marcus, and Sears) offered at least half of the items the organization tracked at fake discounts more than half the time.
Kevin Brasler, the executive editor of Washington Consumers’ Checkbook, said in an interview with WTOP News that most retailers will also constantly offer sales off prices that "rarely ever change."
While federal law says stores cannot mention that they offer items on sale if the displayed "regular" or "list" prices don't appear for a reasonable amount of time, many stores will get around this by displaying false list prices that rarely ever change. The 2022 analysis found that 22 of the retailers kept their items marked "on sale" about 70% of the time, on average.
“The most important thing to keep in mind is that the lowest price of the year or that it’s a Black Friday deal, don’t believe it. Don’t believe it’s a low price unless you do a little shopping around,” Brasler said.
He added that retailers are known to use marketing tricks during this time of year to try to persuade shoppers that they should buy now and spend more money.
“A lot of retailers will try to rush you in making a decision. They may say, ‘Oh, this price is only going to be good for 24 hours or for this weekend or for this week.’ Don’t buy into that,” Brasler told the outlet, adding that most stores continue to offer the Black Friday discount once the holiday passes.
What tricks do marketers use to draw in Black Friday shoppers?
Marketers and retailers use various strategies to attract shoppers who hope to get the best bargain the day after Thanksgiving.
Some of these tricks include dominating search results with advertisements, inflated anchor prices, scarcity warnings, and deceptive patterns.
An example of a deceptive pattern includes the usage of confusing words such as "on" and "off" to think customers are getting the best deal, while scarcity warnings can include phrases such as "Demand is low! Act now!"
Another tactic is price lineups and decoys. Price lineups are not random — it is a tactic to draw customers to higher-priced items when presented with cheaper options. Most customers will draw toward the middle item when provided with a lineup of product models.
For example, if Amazon shows sales for watches, placing a $400 watch next to a $1,700 watch makes the lower price tag seem more affordable. However, when adding a Black Friday sale to the $1,700 watch to bring it down to $600, a customer is more likely to buy the more expensive option because it's marked down and they are getting a better price, per Washington Consumers' Checkbook.
Companies will also prepopulate forms to opt-in customers to allow them to collect their data, pay for extended warranties, or agree to one month free but pay $35.99 in the months after, for example. In June, the Federal Trade Commission sued Amazon, alleging that the company enrolls customers in its Prime program without their consent.
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Several shoppers have also reported that they receive cheaper versions of the products they purchase. Some hoping to get a deal on an expensive radio will see it marked off for 70% on Black Friday, for example, but they say they receive a radio that's identical but of cheaper quality.
A way to avoid this, according to the Motley Fool, is for customers to keep a record of the serial or product numbers when they go shopping on Black Friday to make sure they are receiving the correct products.